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AMERICAN ENTERPRISE DEBATES How Much Government Is Good Government? Rep. Paul Ryan vs. David Brooks With an introduction by Arthur Brooks AMERICAN ENTERPRISE DEBATES How Much Government Is Good Government? Rep. Paul Ryan vs. David Brooks With an introduction by Arthur Brooks © 2011 by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 www.aei.org Printed in the United States of America Table of Contents Foreword, by Apoorva Shah . v Introduction, by Arthur Brooks. 1 The Case for Limited Government, by Paul Ryan . 3 The Case for Energetic Government, by David Brooks . 11 Paul Ryan Responds . 21 David Brooks Responds . 26 About the Authors . 31 Further Reading. 33 iii FOREWORD The Mission of the American Enterprise Debates APOORVA SHAH Research Fellow, American Enterprise Institute The art of debate has crafted the United States as a nation. From the Declaration of Independence to the Federalist Papers to Lincoln and Douglas, our country cannot get away from a good argument. It is easy to look back nostalgically at the elegance and eloquence of such historical debates, however, and wince at the crudeness and populism of today’s political climate. Indeed, we have heard all too often in recent years—even from the president himself—that America’s political rhetoric has become too heated, too caustic. That is where the American Enterprise Debates enter. We recognize that underneath the façade of feisty rhetoric and name-calling lies a variety of unresolved political, economic, and cultural issues in our soci- ety, and that these issues merit probing dialogue and nuanced argument. What is the right role of government in our country? Do new forms of technology harm human minds and relationships? Can America bring about democracy in the developing world? These are just a few of the questions that the American Enterprise Debates aim to address. v vi AMERICAN ENTERPRISE DEBATES Our mission is to transcend the traditional divisions of Left versus Right and have our debaters present unorthodox perspectives on important issues. Instead of hardening listeners’ preconceived biases, like many debates do, we want to challenge them and get them think- ing and talking (or typing and tweeting). A dialogue between two great minds follows. Hopefully, this debate will bring you insight not only into the pressing issues of the day, but also into the enduring questions that define what our nation has been, is, and will become. INTRODUCTION How Much Government Is Good Government? ARTHUR BROOKS President, American Enterprise Institute How much government is good government? In September 2010, Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and I co-wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that tried to answer that question. In the article, we addressed the growing role of government in recent years and made a fairly philosophical assertion about the way our nation is heading. We wrote, “Today, America faces a choice between free markets and managed capitalism, between limited government and an ever-expanding state, between rewarding entrepreneurs and equalizing economic rewards.” New York Times columnist David Brooks (no relation), responded in the pages of his newspaper the next day. “The American story is not just the story of limited governments,” he wrote. “It is the story of limited but energetic governments that use aggressive federal power to promote growth and social mobility.” This set off an intriguing debate within and outside of AEI about one of the primary cultural issues of our time: the size of government. 1 2 AMERICAN ENTERPRISE DEBATES The debate is not just about economics and finance. It’s about culture—the results of the last presidential election should convince us all about that. The size of government and what our government does are cultural issues as much as they are matters of economics. The current debate about government will continue in our nation—and will likely dominate the political discourse in the run-up to the next presidential election. The size and role of government are profoundly moral considera- tions. They go right to the heart of what Americans think about fair- ness and justice, about service and the opportunity to earn and enjoy our own success. How much government is good government? Our answers to that question will determine whether in America we are on what Friedrich Hayek called “the road to serfdom,” or whether we are ready to take the (often difficult) steps that will put us back on the road to freedom. The coming months and years will tell. The American Enterprise Institute is fully committed to the com- petition of ideas. And in the wake of the on-paper debate between Paul Ryan and David Brooks, AEI research fellow Apoorva Shah had the idea of “formalizing” the ongoing discussion by bringing it within the confines of AEI. In short, he sought to provide a format for thought-leaders to debate the big issues of the day. The interaction that followed between congressman and columnist on December 2, 2010, was thus the inaugural session of our new American Enterprise Debates series. In it, Messrs. Ryan and Brooks picked up where they left off in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to ask: What is the proper role of government, and how should we be thinking about it today? The Case for Limited Government REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R-WISCONSIN) Chairman of the House Budget Committee The American Enterprise Institute billed this debate as a case for limited government, represented by me, versus David Brooks with a case for energetic government. Unfortunately, I’m not probably going to do a very good job of upholding my end of the bargain because I happen to believe that the choice is a false one. In fact, energetic government is impossible without limits. The idea that mainstream conservatives are antigovernment is simply not true, and Arthur Brooks and I try to make that point in our first op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, where we quoted F. A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom. Even Hayek reminded us that “the state has legitimate—and critical—functions for rectifying market failures and securing some minimum standard of living.” Take, for example, Edmund Burke, in many ways the founder of modern conservatism. Burke was a champion of ordered liberty, recognizing the impossibility of one without the other. The statesman and philosopher believed liberty was not the freedom to do anything you wished, but freedom coupled with the responsibility to do what was right. This attitude, inside leaders, compels them to act decisively, 3 4 AMERICAN ENTERPRISE DEBATES forcefully; not in any direction they choose but in the one best for those they lead. Recent history is filled with examples of such conservative leaders. Think about former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, what he did to clean up the police department in New York and implement tougher penalties for people breaking the law. Living in New York City is not the same as it was before he arrived. Tommy Thompson, one of my political mentors and former governor of Wisconsin, made bold steps to clean up the moribund welfare system in Wisconsin. Take a look at Governor Mitch Daniels, who’s bringing “A government consumer-directed health care reforms to whose size and scope Indiana. Think about former Governor Jeb Bush, who brought some much-needed and bold is not properly limited education reforms to Florida by setting the will always seek to agenda and pursuing it until they came through. raise taxes before it These leaders have a couple of things in looks for ways to innovate common. They were no strangers to energetic and do more with less.” government, and they were widely admired by mainstream, limited-government conservatives. I’ve also embraced energetic, yet limited, government with my Roadmap for America’s Future. The Roadmap changes the structure of health care, retirement programs, tax policies, and the budget process to keep America from foundering on shoals of debt, economic insecurity, and massive forecasted cuts. The Roadmap does not do away with government—it does not even do away with entitlement programs. It’s a plan that makes these entitlement programs sustainable. It’s a plan that makes these programs something we can live with in the next century, while keeping a limited government and a free enterprise society. Energetic Government Is Impossible without Limits I’d like to expand upon this idea that energetic government is impossible without limits. Big government is lethargic government. A government HOW MUCH GOVERNMENT IS GOOD GOVERNMENT? 5 whose size and scope is not properly limited will always seek to raise taxes before it looks for ways to innovate and do more with less. This is why those who do not share our commitment to limited government have insisted that higher taxes are always the best way and the easiest and first approach to close our yawning deficits. I see this every day in Congress. This is a solution I have rejected, not simply because I’m married to some magical, mythical, absolutely perfect tax revenue level. Higher taxes are something I have a fundamental difference with because I disagree with those who think our biggest problem is not enough “We risk crossing into a revenue. In fact, focusing just on size entirely tipping point at which the misses the point. We should not be asking, size of government will “How big should our government be?” We do irreparable fiscal should be asking, “What is our government and moral damage, for?” “What is its purpose?” Should government enforce the rules, or where we bankrupt should it pick winners and losers? Should the country and turn our government provide a basic safety net, or set safety net into a hammock.” up an enormous transfer program to fund entitlements for the middle class and the wealthy? Is government instituted by us to secure our liberties and allow us to thrive compat- ible with a state that consumes an ever-growing share of the pri- vate economy? Rather than focus on size alone, we should be asking what makes America exceptional.

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